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Giovanna Speranza

Full Professor of Organic Chemistry at DC UNIMI

Expertise: organic synthesis

Giovanna Speranza received her “laurea” in Chemistry in 1980 at the University of Milano. After graduation, she took a research chemist position in a food industry where she worked in the areas of phytochemistry and food chemistry. In 1985 she went back to the University of Milano, where she obtained her Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1989. For the next four years she held the position of researcher at “Centro di Studio sulle Sostanze Organiche Naturali” of CNR. In 1992 she became associate professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Milano, and full professor in 2003. In 1997 she was a visiting scientist at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (UK) where she worked in the field of coenzyme B12-dependent enzymatic reactions.

She is President of the Technical-Scientific Committee of the “Italian Biocatalysis Center”, an Italian Consortium for research, development and industrial application of biocatalysis and biotechnology, member of the Advisory Board and of the Scientific Committee of CINMPIS (Consorzio Interuniversitario Nazionale “Metodologie e Processi Innovativi di Sintesi”), and of the Board of Teachers of Doctorate School of Chemical Sciences and Tecnologies (PhD course in Industrial Chemistry). She is also member of the Academic Consortium INSTM (Consorzio Interuniversitario Nazionale per la Scienza e Tecnologia dei Materiali) and of various international and national scientific societies.

Her scientific interests have been mainly developed in the areas of Bioorganic and Natural Product Chemistry. Her recent research activity is focused on: 1) synthesis and conformational analysis of biologically active peptides; 2) studies on gold/silver nanoparticles; 3) chemoenzymatic synthesis of biologically active compounds and investigation of enzymatic reaction mechanism; 4) isolation, structural elucidation and synthesis of natural products. She is the author of 119 publications in international journals and 143 oral/poster communications at national and international meetings.